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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 8:58 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Ok.  I'll be short and sweet...
 
Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, condemned sin "in the flesh", right?  Jesus as full human being, getting his humanity from the Theotokos, went to his freely chosen death in unswerving faith for His Father and unconditional love for the Father and his brothers and sisters.  Satan was proven wrong about his analysis of human nature and it's inbred fear of nothingness (death, loneliness, etc).  A human being COULD demonstrate likeness to God.  And by Grace through Faith, "godhood" could be a human exercise by the power of the Spirit.
 
Now...this is what I'd want to say.
 
Jesus had to conquer 1) his NATURALLY FUNCTIONING LIMBIC ( "REPTILLIAN" )BRAIN and it's evolved drive for physical SELF-PRESERVATION in the midst of uncertainty...and 2) his NATURALLY FUNCTIONAL EGO PROCESS and its ability to assimilate and/or identify with to enculturation (hence nationalistic and ethnic forms of human self-idolatry).
 
Jesus was perfected as he learned OBEDIENCE..."Not my will, but Your Will be done."
 
Jesus basically showed that even though physical, emotional, and existential self-preservation and self-regard IS wired into human being (IMO, this is the other side of unconsciously perceiving our createdness), it doesn't MANDATE that human beings MUST sin.  Humans can be free from sin in the Spirit of God.  Faith in God, his Word, and Spirit makes life a matter of choice, not robotic cultural variations of individual and social egoism.
 
Does this make sense?


God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler

Post Edited (One Love) : 5/2/2009 9:07:45 AM (GMT-5)

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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 8:59 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Classic.


God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler

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Similitude
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Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 9:19 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
What are we to make of the verse in John (and others) that seem to imply that humans couldn't "receive" the Holy Spirit until Jesus had been resurrected? This would imply that having the right heart/mind would not have been enough, prior to the incarnation, for living sinlessly. Right?


 

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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 9:36 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Jeff:
This would imply that having the right heart/mind would not have been enough, prior to the incarnation, for living sinlessly. Right?

Of course. Until then, faith was accounted as righteousness (Abraham, etc.) But the point is that sinlessness IS possible in human being through the "indwelling" of God's Spirit in said human being.  This is why we are to put away sin, which we've died to in our "flesh", and live in the Spirit.
 
Jesus AS HUMAN had the fullness of God's Spirit naturally as Incarnate Word.
 
We AS HUMAN can have the fullness of God's Spirit by grace as believing "Spirit-bearers".


God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler

Post Edited (One Love) : 5/2/2009 9:39:16 AM (GMT-5)

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Similitude
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Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 9:57 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
That's my take, too. But I've heard some open theists say sinlessness is possible without the Spirit or prior to the incarnation.


 

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PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 10:28 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.

YOU WILL LIKE, D.

mentions logos and logoi.

Tell me what you think of this, by Hopko.

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/namesofjesus/jesus_-_the_word_of_god

 


(o)

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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 12:12 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Thanks, B. Sounds like excellent listening thus far...


God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler

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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
 
   Posted 5/2/2009 1:10 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Total amen, yo.


God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am.  God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian."  -James Fowler

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